Daybreak
by lepolemicist
Summary: Peace, and a world without orphans. That was all Naruto Uzumaki ever wanted. It is his dream, and the Sage's – and everyone knows you can't reach utopia without treading on a few corpses.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Peace, and a world without orphans. That was all Naruto Uzumaki ever wanted. It is his dream, and the Sage's – and everyone knows you can't reach utopia without treading on a few corpses.

**Daybreak**

Chapter 1

Two people stare across at each other atop the lake. One is a man, the other, a boy. They are dissimilar, save for their eyes: concentric ripples on unfathomably deep violet ponds.

"Do you desire _peace_, boy? Then come with me. We can build a new world. One _without_ orphans."

The boy hesitates for a fraction of a second, and then the hesitation is gone. He steps forward to take the outstretched hand. The man's cloak flaps in the wind, red clouds on black, heralding a new dawn.

-(=A=)-

The Jounin withdraws his kunai from the neck of his victim. The ANBU is dead even before his body crumples to the ground.

The ANBU was poor, and alone – as the Jounin's contacts assured him it would be. The guard did not register the danger until it was too late, at which point he had contracted a fatal case of knife-through-the-throat.

Today is the day he will do his patriotic duty to Konoha. He will kill the demon before it can ever harm anyone ever again. This he swears on the memories of his team and all those who fell on that fateful day seven years ago. He remembers the screams, the fire, the overwhelming_ terror_ –

No. Never again. That is why he is here. He vaults over the edge of the topmost roof of the apartment building, onto the red-tiled roof below.

In one swift move, he leaps through the window and he is here.

It is there. It is _looking_ at him.

He brings him bloodstained kunai up, and leaps forward to end it in one swift thrust to the throat.

-(=A=)-

Naruto is up late – he is tired but these comics are too awesome for sleep to be an enticing proposition.

The Sandaime has given him, for his seventh birthday, some comics about the adventures of famous ninjas.

He has spent almost the whole day reading about the legendary exploits of the Rikudo Sennin, of the Senju and Uchiha cooperating to build Konoha, and of the Sandaime protecting Konoha in the First Great War (He didn't know that Gramps was so cool! He has to get the old man to show him some of those awesome fire jutsus). There is also the tale of the Sannin's baptism by fire in Ame – and of course, his personal favourite, the tale of how the Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi.

He hears a thud at the window. There's a ninja in his room.

And then there is only _pain_.

Spreading through his shoulder like a wildfire, pain so bad it defies description.

Naruto spasms on the floor, and claws at the kunai wound at his left shoulder, as if trying to hold back the bleeding.

That asshole stabbed him!

The ninja brings his kunai back for a second thrust.

"_No!_"

A childish scream tears from his throat, as Naruto brings his bloodied right palm out. It is a laughably futile and ineffectual gesture, one repeated innumerable times across the span of history as one person is about the die at the hands of another.

But this is no ordinary child.

The very air _ripples_ and the air is tinged violet as the ninja is blown across the room.

Somehow, Naruto knows that the ninja is dead even before he hits wall.

After a bit more panicking and rolling about his bed, Naruto grits his teeth and gets up. He stands up and forces his protesting body to walk to the bathroom. He needs to check the wound.

He looks into the mirror and the first thing he sees isn't the already-rapidly closing wound.

What he notices are his eyes.

"What – are those – why do I have fucking purple lanterns for eyeballs?"

He stares at it for quite some time. He marvels at perfectly circular concentric rings forming ripples across the dark purple pond. It is unnerving.

And there is no doubt about what they are – what his eyes are.

The Rinnegan.

The Dojutsu of the Rikudou. The Eyes of God. They are the Seeds of Creation, the Bridge that Spans the Stars, Armageddon in Two Orbs – the comics did come up with a thousand and one names, each one stranger than the last, to describe the Rinnegan.

For the past day he had been reading about the Saviour of the World and his mythical deeds, and now, his eyes are the same as the Rikudo's.

And it is only then does he notice that there is faint halo of light around his body. His stomach glows with the light of the sun.

This is definitely strange.

Naruto closes his eyes and tries to think the situation through.

Alright. He has the Rinnegan. And that is unspeakably awesome. He is definitely going to become Hokage after this. That said, did his new eyes allow him to – throw – that ninja across the room even without touching him? And did it cause him glow with this weird light?

Can he turn his eyes back to normal? The light was strange, if not irritating.

Hmm.

He does remember Hinata using the Ram Seal to activate and deactivate her own strange white dojutsu – the Byakugan? – during sparring sessions.

It's worth a shot.

He closes and his eyes, focuses, and brings his hands together in the Ram Seal.

"Kai!"

Despite his enthusiastic attempt at releasing the dojutsu, when he opens his eyes the same unnerving purple orbs stare back at his from his bathroom mirror.

Hmm. He will probably have to focus on his chakra in some way. Can this be like canceling a genjutsu?

He vaguely remembers Iruka-sensei's class on genjutsu. He only attended because he thought that they would learn an awesome genjutsu – which would be so useful for pranking. In actuality, there was a long boring lecture on theory and a short practical on canceling genjutsu. He slept through it, naturally.

Still, he does remember the basics of canceling genjutsu, even if he didn't manage to break out of Iruka-sensei's genjutsu.

Again, he closes his eyes and focuses, whilst bringing his hands together in the Ram Seal.

He concentrates on his chakra pathways, and slowly he becomes aware of this warm _flow_ through his body. He narrows his concentration to the pathways around his eyes. For the lack of a better word, he _sees_ the flow of chakra towards the Rinnegan, and how it is using up that chakra.

He takes a deep breath, and then breathes out forcefully.

Simultaneously, he imagines interrupting the flow of the chakra to his eyes. There is a sharp stinging sensation – and now that he thinks of it, he swears he felt a similar sensation just when the ninja who attacked him was thrown across the room.

He opens his eyes and nothing but his normal sky-blue eyes look back at him.

"Awesome".

-(=A=)-

Naruto sits across the desk of the Sandaime. He squirms a little uncomfortably.

It did not take the ANBU long to discover their dead compatriot – and the equally dead jounin attacker in Naruto's room.

They had swiftly brought Naruto to their Hokage, where he could tell his full story, and where, above all, he would be safe.

For unbeknownst to Naruto Uzumaki, that night Itachi Uchiha had single-handedly completed the genocide of the Uchiha Clan. He had fled and the village is now in high alert. Understandably, the Sandaime has other things on his mind.

Still, he is concerned for the boy that he loved as a grandson.

"Naruto, are you alright?"

Of course, his ANBU subordinates have all but confirmed that the boy is bloody but unharmed. Still, he needs Naruto's own confirmation.

"Yes, Jiji. He stabbed me but it's healed now."

Ah. The power of the Kyuubi. Mito and Kushina did have accelerated healing powers, and so it stands to reason that Naruto has them as well.

And the Kyuubi's powers would also explain why the jounin assailant was dead. Cursory examinations indicated that the man was killed by blunt force trauma of some sort. Did the Kyuubi come to his host's defense? That would not surprising. History did show instances of Bijuus' power surfacing at times when the host was in mortal danger. Still…

"How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I suppose. Jiji, why did that man attack me?"

Ah. Many questions come to the Sandaime's mind. Why did the assassin attack today, of all days? In view of the imminent coup attempt, most ANBU had been stationed near the Uchiha district, in the best position to contain any violence. Any remaining strength was distributed to the village walls and to key command installations. The guard detail protecting Naruto was not the usual two-man team – today, only a single, rookie ANBU was given to the protection of Naruto.

A leak. Someone must have known that ANBU would be stretched thin today, with the protection around Naruto similarly weak. And they struck.

He has work to do. Something is rotten in the village, and he has to weed out the traitorous elements before they destroy everyone. _And_ he has to deal with the aftermath of the Uchiha massacre – with an entire clan, the Uchihas no less, dead, the village is weakened. He will have to deal with Kumo and the other vultures gearing up to exploit that weakness.

"I'm sorry Naruto. I don't know. That man was just a bad man who wanted to hurt you. There are people like that. Just today another bad man killed his whole family. As Hokage I also have deal with that. I wish I could spend more time with you, but I'm really busy now. I promise to bring you out for Ramen next week, but for now you should get some sleep."

The mention of Ramen perks the boy right up. That is encouraging, at least. The boy does not seem to be suffering from any trauma from the attack.

"Tiger, please bring Naruto back to his apartment."

As the ANBU operative leaves with Naruto, Sarutobi Hiruzen begins his long night.

"Get me Shikaku."

-(=A=)-

It is a bright, Konoha morning.

And Naruto is about to head to the Shinobi archives. It is not his favourite place, but he wants to find out more about his new eyes and the man who first bore them.

He has to sneak past the librarian – she is still upset over the prank Naruto pulled on her last week. He stole and hid her spectacles and is yet to find them.

On the upside, it makes sneaking past her much easier. Without her glasses and at a distance, she cannot tell one person from another. Or that you're pointing your middle finger at her.

Which Naruto proceeds to do.

Fun aside, he heads deeper into the library, using the shelf labels to find his way to the correct section.

"Rikudou Sennin. This should be it."

He draws one of the seemingly more accessible books ("A Very Short Introduction to Famous Ninja: The Rikudou Sennin"), and withdraws to a table in the corner to peruse it.

The book is actually quite fascinating.

It does not have much in the way of details of what the Rinnegan actually does – all it mentions is that the Rinnegan allows the user to see chakra. That does explain why he saw that halo around his own body the night before – that was just his chakra made visible. But that is nothing special – as the book itself says, the Sharingan and the Byakugan allow their user to visualize chakra as well.

What is more interesting to the young boy is the story of the Rikudo Sennin – his story, his life, and his ideals.

"_It was an age of endless war, of endless strife. It mattered not if you were strong or if you weak. You lived a short, nasty and brutish life. Death would come for you – as surely as the sun would rise, you would die – young and before your time._

"_And then he came, in a world consumed with fire and blood. He had discovered the existence of chakra, and how it could be used. With that he had power – whether to grind mountains to dust or to walk on water. He had power, but more than that he had a dream of a world at peace with itself. Where children were children and not orphans, and where people do not have to make a daily choice between killing or dying._

"_So he entered the tumultuous world and started spreading his message of peace, whilst teaching others how to use chakra and perform ninjutsu. He succeeded – partially. Some peace came to the world._

"_But even gods do not live forever, and when he passed on the world resumed its usual course._

"_Legend says that one day another with the Sage's eyes will come, and that he will save or damn the world – this heir will calm the world and herald peace; or he will utterly destroy it."_

Naruto will not be able to say that he understands all that the book said about the Sage – but he is a kind boy and he does empathize with the Sage's dream of peace.

He has never thought deeply about this before – of why he wants to become a ninja. Thus far, if the Sandaime had asked him, he would have said that he had wanted to become a ninja because it was cool. Who didn't want to know how to do all the cool things that ninjas could do?

Now that he thinks about it, he realizes that there is more to being a ninja than that. A ninja is about protecting others, especially those too weak to protect themselves. His hero, the Yondaime, ultimately sacrificed his life to save the village from the Kyuubi.

He finds the Sage's dream to be a good one – one line in particular stands out: "_Where children are children, and not orphans_."

It strikes a chord inside of him.

He knows the pain of loneliness, and wishes from the bottom of his heart that no one else will ever have to bear or experience it.

Peace is a dream worth fighting for – worth being a ninja for.

And that will be his, Naruto Uzumaki's, ninja way.

-(=A=)-

Naruto is in Training Ground Three. It is a wide clearing, surrounded almost entirely by trees. A river runs to the north-east of the training ground, winding its lazy way towards another training ground further to the east. In the centre of glade are three tree stumps, and a solitary black stone.

He is here to test his new Rinnegan.

Closing his eyes in concentrating, Naruto forms the Ram Seal – as he did when trying to deactivate the dojutsu.

Focusing on his chakra pathways, he _pushes_ – and wills the chakra to flow to his eyes. He feels the prickling, stinging sensation, and when he opens his eyes the world is a sea of chakra.

He can see the chakra in everything around him, from the smallest blade of grass to the largest tree. Everything from the colour, to the texture, to the flow of chakra, tells him something about the objects whose chakra he sees.

More than that, he feels the chakra. There is a throbbing intentionality in the life around him.

And at this point he becomes aware of someone observing him.

Suddenly feeling painfully _naked_, he pulls his googles over his eyes. This does not impede his sight of chakra, but the googles make him feel… safer.

Turning around, he sees the chakra signature of a human – a ninja – hiding in the trees behind him, near the entrance to the glade. The chakra is white and electric and cool and confident – and also strangely familiar and comforting, like an old teddy bear. He feels no undercurrent of malice, but rather only curiosity for why he is here and a tinge of surprise over being detected. Above all, the chakra feels reassuring – like he will be safe.

The chakra signature does not move, but it does not bother Naruto unduly. He decides that the ninja is not a threat, and that he is welcome to watch. Naruto sits down and returns to exploring his new dojutsu. He turns his gaze on himself and sees himself cloaked in violet light. It is the halo he saw yesterday, and like yesterday, his stomach is painfully bright.

The same was true for the ninja hiding in the forest – his stomach was a bit brighter than the rest of his body. Is the stomach the place where most of a person's chakra is?

Looking more closely at his stomach, he sees a swirling pattern within eight-fixed points of chakra. Inside the swirl he sees hints of deep angry red. It reminds him of the sun peeking out from behind the clouds.

Nonetheless, Naruto soon loses interest in navel-gazing and the chakra anatomy of his own stomach. What he is really interested in is that invisible force, the one which killed the assassin.

So. How can he replicate that?

Obviously, he didn't use any handsigns back then, so it stands to reason that he will not need any here.

He remembers reaching out with his palm that last time.

With that thought in mind, he brings his opened hand up.

Without closing his eyes, he attempts to gather his chakra around his palm.

Slowly but surely, the glow around his palm increases in intensity.

He splays his palms wide, and miming in the direction of the tree stumps, he imagines the force that he felt yesterday, and pushes towards the centre training stump.

He feels a breeze – though it may well only be his imagination – and sees a pulse of violet chakra speeds from his palm towards the stump. A solid _thump_ reverberates throughout the clearing.

Walking forward to examine his target, Naruto realizes that the training stump is not much worse for the wear. There is a small indent in its bark – comparable perhaps to a reasonably strong ninja punching it.

Not too bad, all things considered. If the trump were your face, you would be needing a new one.

Still, this will be much more awesome with more practice, Naruto decides.

-(=A=)-

After spending much of the day bullying that same stump, Naruto heads back to his apartment.

There are still many things he needs to think about, to wrap his head around.

Just this morning, he had declared the Rikudo Sennin's nindo – peace – to be his own.

But how can he do something so massive and momentous like keep the peace without the necessary strength?

The Rikudo Sennin himself succeeded only because he was the God of Shinobi – the strongest in the world. He had single-handedly quelled the clan wars (though back then they did not have ninjutsu – they killed each other through the tried and tested way of stabbing each other to death). With his strength, he had brought peace, at least for a time.

It is clear that if he wants to succeed he too will have to become stronger.

Of course, he has always wanted to become Hokage, but he had never really thought of what that would mean – that he will have to become stronger and that he has to work for it.

Naruto has always played truancy with the Academy, though in his defense the classes were boring. Now, though, with his nindo and his need to become a better ninja, he will not skip his classes – he will have to train.

If he were honest with himself, his taijutsu, his skill with weapons and his ability with ninjutsu, all ranged from the subpar to the incompetent to the downright horrible. He will have to train his skills.

And he will have to train his mind. Naruto resolves to visit the library and read more about the world he means to change. Reading could be interesting – he really enjoyed the session in the library that morning.

And it is with that new resolve to do better as a ninja, swimming about his head, that Naruto drifts into fitful sleep, his dreams disturbed by that red, angry chakra.

-(=A=)-

Three months have passed since Naruto first awakened his Rinnegan. And it is three months since Naruto made the unconscious choice to keep this secret to himself – nobody asked, so he told nobody. He was careful to keep his tinted googles over his eyes whenever he utilized the Rinnegan. Ah well. Good shinobis can keep secrets.

Regardless, his increased diligence at training has been paying off – he has steadily moved up the class ranking in taijutsu, while his weapons skills have been demonstrably improving. He can actually hit the target figures most of the time now, at any rate.

His progress in developing his pulse-of-chakra-that-hits-stuff jutsu has been reasonably good – as things stand he can extirpate a good part of the training log. He should think of a name for it soon. Still, it bugs him that he has been unable to learn any other jutsus. The old man refused to teach him any, at least until he was older; the Shinobi Archive did not lack in books on the theory of ninjutsu, but it did lack any actual instruction manuals, at least not any at his clearance level.

And so it is after another frustrating session at the Archive, looking for jutsu scrolls that didn't exist, that he is back in Training Ground Three, practicing his pulse jutsu again. He finds that concentrating the chakra into a sphere before firing it at the target drastically improves its power and effectiveness.

"What are you doing, dobe?"

Turning around, Naruto sees Sasuke Uchiha enter the clearing. He wears a sneer, but it looks forced. Sasuke has deep eyebags – and looks _tired_.

"Training, obviously."

"What did you do to the training log?"

"I used my awesome jutsu. I invented it myself."

The two boys appraise each other, while Naruto's mind whirled.

"Hey, Sasuke. Tell you what. I teach you my jutsu and you teach me one of your fire jutsus – or lend a scroll if you have any."

Sasuke considers Naruto for a moment, before shrugging.

"Fine. Don't blame me if you're unable to learn the Gokyakku though. So how do you do your jutsu?"

"Alright, Sasuke. Listen to the master. First, gather chakra into your palm. Second, Focus the chakra into a sphere and try to make it as dense as possible. That part is _important_. If you don't do that, the chakra dissipates and weakens after it leaves your palm. And thirdly, you fire it into your target."

Naruto finishes by directing the dense pulse of chakra into the left training log, at which point it promptly explodes, leaving a hole a feet across inside.

"Cool, huh?"

"Hn."

"You can practice this later. Mind showing me a fire jutsu now?"

"Fine. We have to go the stream."

They walk the short distance through the trees, and face the stream.

"Watch closely, dobe."

Sasuke brings his hands together for a rapid series of seals: Horse, Tiger, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger –

"Katon: Gokakyu!"

Forming a ring with his thumb and forefinger, Sasuke spits out a stream of flames that coalesces into a ball of fire about three meters wide.

He holds the jutsu for a few seconds and then disengages.

Having observed the jutsu with his Rinnegan, Naruto caught the _essence_ of the jutsu – he could see how Sasuke had molded his chakra into distinctly fire-natured chakra – red, hot, and _burning_. He feels confident of replicating the jutsu.

"Don't burn yourself, dobe."

With that Sasuke walks back into the clearing – presumably to practice the pulse jutsu.

Alright. Time to spit fire.

Bringing his hands together in the prescribed sequence, Naruto gathers his chakra, and then thinks of _fire_. The light – the sizzling – the heat. He thinks of fire consuming and _burning_ – and he exhales.

"Katon: Gokakyu!"

Using the ring as Sasuke did, to direct the flames, Naruto spits out a stream of fire that formes a ball of flames spanning five meters. It gratifies him that his is so much bigger than Sasuke's.

Giving the fireball an almighty push, it flies forward and across the stream. He can feel the heat even at a distance, and he can see the steam forming an obscuring cloud.

He releases the jutsu and admires the smell of burnt grass – the grass patch across the river is utterly scorched.

That was… easy.

He decides to check in with how Sasuke is doing – not well, as it turns out.

He finds Sasuke growling in frustration as yet another attempt at the pulse jutsu fails.

With the Rinnegan, Sasuke's mistake is apparent. He gathers too little chakra – and what little chakra he gathers is far too dissipated to do any good. It must be hard to see what you are doing – without the benefit of the Rinnegan, or another dojutsu.

"Hey, Sasuke. You have to use more chakra, and make them denser."

"Shut up, idiot. Who asked you?"

Naruto wants to snap right back, but restrains himself. He did learn a really cool fire jutsu, and if he wants to learn anymore he will have to remain on good terms with Sasuke.

"Hey. Just trying to help. It doesn't matter anyway. Your Gokakyu is definitely cooler, and more useful in combat anyway."

Sasuke looks marginally mollified at that, but continues to ignore Naruto in favour of gathering more chakra for his next attempt at eviscerating the log.

"Sasuke. I was thinking. Do you want to spar sometimes? I could do with a partner; I'm sure you could too. It'll really help us improve."

Sasuke looks up with appraising eyes.

"You can't beat me, dobe."

"Maybe I can't. But I want to get better. Don't you? A training partner will help."

Sasuke thinks on that and Naruto suddenly realizes that while Sasuke's eyes are on him – he is not actually looking at him. His eyes are empty and faraway.

Then they harden.

"You're on."

-(=A=)-

The two boys are sprawled on the grass, exhausted after their hour-long spar. Sasuke won, of course, though Naruto feels that these sessions have been really helping his taijutsu.

He has been landing more and more hits on Sasuke - and letting in less and less blows through his guard.

On this occasion, he pushed Sasuke so hard that he actually awoke his Sharingan. So now, Sasuke is lying back in contentment – or what would be contentment, for him – whilst observing the sky with his 1-tomoe Sharingan.

"So. Congrats on awakening your Sharingan, bastard."

"Hn. I look forward to kicking more of your ass in our training sessions."

"You wish."

Something has always bugged him about Sasuke – why he trains so hard.

For Naruto himself, he trains hard to achieve his ideals – his lofty dreams of peace.

What about Sasuke?

He asks as much.

"Sasuke. Sorry if this sounds rude, but there's something I want to ask you. I've always wondered about this – about why you push yourself so hard. Why exactly do you want as a ninja?"

Sasuke closes his eyes and considers the question. After the past three months of training together, they've formed something close to friendship – camaraderie at least. Naruto can see that Sasuke is taking this question very seriously. His voice is soft when he answers.

"There is … this man. My brother. Itachi. He killed our whole family – all of them. He said – that this was to test his capabilities. I have to stop him. I must kill him. I have to avenge my parents and my clan. That is what have to do – and that is why I train everyday. I need to become better than Itachi. I need to get stronger"

Naruto remains silent as he considers Sasuke's life ambition – to kill the man who murdered his family. Finally, he breaks his silence.

"Actually, I think it's a good goal. For me, I want – peace – a world where no one dies or gets hurt needlessly.

"People like Itachi kill and hurt others for no reason. I think we do need to stop people like him.

"You know, you don't have to go after Itachi alone. You're my friend, and one day I'll help you hunt down the bastard."

The two boys continue lying in silence in the glade as evening turns to dusk. Slowly, the stars appears, and finally – Sasuke's voice is so soft that Naruto has to strain to hear it.

"Naruto. Thanks."

-(=A=)-

Naruto descends the stairs into the Uchiha Clan Library. The library is dusty and has obviously not seen much use in recent times.

Sasuke was surprisingly quick to acquiesce when Naruto asked for his permission to use the Uchiha library. He could be an asshole about other things, but he was not selfish.

Naruto has already been here countless times, perusing the Katon scrolls.

Today he is here to start his foray into genjutsu. A ninja is supposed to be proficient in all three branches of the ninja arts – taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu. Thus far, Naruto has focused on the former two – his ability in the third is nonexistent. He means to fix that.

Gathering all the scrolls he settles himself comfortably on a table by an open window. The day is bright and sunny. Once he would have been outside playing pranks or just having fun. But the past is the past and he has changed. Today he has difficult work ahead of him.

Naruto is familiar with the basic theory of genjutsu, from the Academy and from researching the Shinobi Archive. What the Archive lacks is, unsurprisingly, actual jutsu scrolls, and in that regard the Clan Library is generous.

Unfurling the first scroll, Naruto delves into understanding the genjutsu Magen: Kasegui. Favoured by the Uchiha, and made easier to cast by possessing the Sharingan, the jutsu torments the victim by driving illusory spikes into their body. The spikes are certainly illusory – but the pain is real. The technique can be used to torture, but it can also be used to incapacitate. The genjutsu is a type of temporary paralysis genjutsu – it immobilizes the opponent, in this case, via the use of pain.

Magen: Kasegui interests Naruto because it is effective at debilitating the opponent – it succeeds whether or not the opponent is able to break your genjutsu. Cast it on the opponent and victory is essentially yours. Even if the opponent does break the genjutsu, the very real pain that the genjutsu causes will lead to extreme weakness and disorientation – giving you openings to exploit.

The morning continues in this way, with Naruto commiting to memory the various genjutsu and their uses.

From all this study it emerges with some clarity that genjutsu differs fundamentally from other kinds of mind-affecting jutsu – like the Yamanaka's. Genjutsu is essentially shallow – affecting one's perceptions – while leaving untouched the core underlying features of the mind: emotions, thought processes, memory etc.

Which raises the question: can genjutsu affect those deeper parts of the mind? If so, it would be a devastating weapon indeed.

In this regard, the Magen: Narakumi is quite fascinating inasmuch it reveals to the victim his deepest fear. In practice, it is neigh-useless because it is too unsubtle – it bludgeons the victim with their fear, even if the fear (say – a rampaging kyuubi) is unrealistic given the context (say – one is fighting in the middle of the chunin exams). A clever or alert opponent is nearly impossible to fool.

What is extraordinary about the Magen: Narakumi is that it taps into the victim's mind to provide the contents of the genjutsu – no imagination on the user's part is required. So genjutsu does seem able to connect, at least on some level, with the deeper parts of the minds.

Can that connection be reversed? Instead of drawing information out, can feelings – or thoughts – or memory – be implanted? Or can a mind be overwhelmed from the inside – if you flood a person with a million emotions and thoughts, can that disable him at least momentarily? If such a thing were possible, it would be quite the weapon.

Pulling forward a scroll on the theory of genjutsu construction, Naruto starts reading again.

-(=A=)-

And it as such that the days turn to weeks, the weeks to months, months to years.

Time passes, and a child grows up.

In a blink of an eye the day is here.

Naruto Uzumaki affixes his googles firmly over his eyes.

He leaps out his window and takes off towards the Academy.

-(=A=)-

Notes:

Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu – Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Magen: Kasegui – Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique

Magen: Narakumi – Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique


	2. Chapter 2

Summary: Peace, and a world without orphans. That was all Naruto Uzumaki ever wanted. It is his dream, and the Sage's – and everyone knows you can't reach utopia without treading on a few corpses.

**Daybreak**

Chapter 2

The written test is easy – for him, at least. This was not something he could have said a few years back, but since then he has discovered books to be far more interesting than he had once thought them to be.

The practical test poses no more of challenge that the written test did. Aside from that one tricky bunshin jutsu (the trick, he finds, is to generate a vanishingly small amount of chakra) – everything else proves to be smooth sailing.

Still, Naruto does not think that he will be able to get the much coveted title of Rookie of the Year – the top scoring student of the graduating batch. Sasuke still beats him hands down in taijutsu and throwing weapons – and his ability to exhale a rampaging fire dragon can't make up the difference if all the ninjutsu exam tests is one's ability to produce a Bunshin.

Ah well. He can live with that. He's not jealous. At all.

The exam ended before noon, and the class was dismissed early – presumably for the students to either celebrate or commiserate with their families and friends.

Naruto, lacking the former and having failed to convince Sasuke to follow him to Ichiraku's, heads to the ramen stall himself.

"Old man! I passed the test. I'm now officially a Shinobi of the Leaf!"

"Congratulations, Naruto! Today's on the house."

Old man Ichiraku has always treated him well, and for that Naruto will always be grateful.

While waiting for his food, Naruto makes his plans for the afternoon. Preferable, he will be able to visit the Uchiha Clan Library – there are still innumerable jutsus there that he has not had the time to learn.

However, Sasuke mentioned visiting the Uchiha shrine as the reason for blowing him off over lunch today. He suspects that this day means quite a bit to Sasuke – and that he would like some time on his own. Visiting the Uchiha compound will be quite an uncomfortable experience at this point in time – he will rather give Sasuke his space.

And the spirits know, that moody bastard needs his space.

Naruto finds himself unable to come up with anything interesting to do – so he decides upon jutsu practice – some of his high-ranking fire techniques still need work.

And then Teuchi serves up his first bowl of miso ramen, and all thoughts of jutsu and practice vanish.

"Itadakimasu!"

-(=A=)-

Naruto has never been a patient child, and whatever limited patience he did possess have been exhausted by the past two hours of waiting for their jounin-sensei. Everyone else's designated jounin turned up punctually, and proceeded to lead their teams out. Only Team 7 remains in the classroom.

He wishes that he had the foresight to bring a book or scroll or _something_ with which to past the time.

Naruto is not the only one upset at their jounin-sensei's lateness. Sasuke is sitting besides him, brooding in frustrated silence as only he could.

The last member of the three-man squad, Haruno Sakura, is sitting behind Sasuke and himself – and Naruto does not need the Byakugan to know that she is making doe eyes at Sasuke.

While he is glad that Sasuke is with him on the squad, he is unhappy at Sakura's inclusion. He – and for that matter, Sasuke – find her to be a massive annoyance the size of the Hokage monument. Perhaps uncharitably, Naruto thinks that Sakura's goals as a ninja can be summed up as: marry Sasuke and pop out ducked-haired babies.

His train of thought is – finally – interrupted as the door to the classroom slides up to admit a grey-haired man. His lower face is obscured by a mask, and his lopsided headband covers his left eye.

"Mah, mah. Sorry I'm late, my prospective students! I got lost on the journey of life, and couldn't find my way here."

Naruto has to clamp his mouth shut, to prevent himself from snapping at the late, irresponsible asshole who has the gall to produce such a painfully stupid excuse. From the corner of his eye, Naruto can see Sasuke's eye twitching at the corner, but he too keeps his peace.

Sakura shows no such restraint.

"Do you honestly expect us to believe such a moronic excuse?"

The jounin – Kakashi Hatake, presumably – gives no indication of having heard Sakura's rejoinder, and blithely continues:

"Meet me on the roof."

With that, he vanishes in a puff of smoke. And it is only then that Naruto notes, with some trepidation, the jounin's choice of words – they are not his students yet, merely "prospective" ones.

The three genin make their way up to the rooftop, and upon reaching, they find Kakashi leaning insouciantly against the side railings at the edge of the roof. He gestures for them to sit down on the benches in front of him, and they oblige.

"Well. Let's begin by introducing ourselves."

There is short, awkward silence, before Sakura asks, "What do you want to know?"

"Well. Your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future – that sort of thing."

Nobody else seems willing to start first, so Naruto volunteered.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. My dream is… a peaceful world. I like reading, and training. Dislikes: Nothing in particular, but I do get annoyed when I find jutsu scrolls too moldy to read."

"Alright. Next."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are a lot of things I dislike, but I suppose I like training as well. And my dream, if you can call it that, is to kill a certain man."

"Okay… And lastly, the girl."

"My name is Sakura Haruno. What I like is –"

At that point, she sneaks a none-too-subtle glance at Sasuke. She continues:

"Well… there's a person I like. My dream for the future… well… heh."

Another look, this one even less subtle than the last.

Naruto feels disgust, and a bit of concern – Sasuke looks as if he is suffering from an aneurysm.

"Dislikes… Ino and other annoying girls."

"Alright!" Kakashi claps his hands together, signaling the end of the short introductory session. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, and tomorrow you will start your official shinobi duties.

"First, we're going to have something that involves just the four of us… a team exercise, if you will. Survival training."

Sakura frowns and voices her confusion, "Why is out first exercise as a team going to be survival training? We've had that at the Academy."

"Ah. This is not going to be a normal survival exercise. This time, I will be your opponent."

Naruto's suspicions solidify into certainty, and he speaks,

"You're testing us."

Kakashi's one visible eye crinkles up in something approach a smile.

"Very observant! You see, of the twenty-seven graduates from the Academy, only nine will go on to become genin. The rest of you failures will return to the Academy. The test is difficult, as you can tell from the miserable thirty-three percent pass rate."

Eyes narrow in response to Kakashi's pronouncement. Naruto suspected that this would be the case.

"No questions? Then tomorrow, you will have to show your real skills on the training ground. Bring all your shinobi tools. And… skip breakfast, you might throw up."

Leaning forward, Kakashi proffers three pieces of paper.

"The details of the test are on the paper."

Accepting one and passing the other two on, Naruto glances through the sheet.

It is a mock-up of a real mission directive. Objective, orders, risk assessment, etc. And at the bottom, the reporting details: Konoha Training Grounds 3 at 0800 hours.

When he looks up, Kakashi is gone. The three genin are left alone on the rooftop.

After some internal deliberation, Naruto speaks up:

"If you guys are free today, we should practice. Establishment, Analysis and tracking, Combat and movement drills. You know – basic survival stuff"

And catching Sasuke's eye, Naruto adds,

"Combat drills especially."

Sasuke nods in agreement. And naturally, Sakura voices her agreement as well.

Naruto jerks his head towards the stairs.

"Let's go."

-(=A=)-

"Hey guys, good morning!"

"You're late!"

Sakura's shout greets Kakashi as he waves to his students, in center clearing of Training Ground 3.

"It's eleven. You're three hours late," Naruto adds flatly.

"The Hokage ordered me to help this old lady cross the road, and it took a few hours. Sorry," Kakashi offers. Ignoring the disbelieving stares, he retrieves an alarm clock from his pocket, and setting it, places it upon the top of the middle training log.

"Listen up. This alarm clock is set for noon. And here are two bells. Your task is to retrieve them from me before time runs out. Those who don't get a bell by noon, gets no lunch. I'll even tie you to the training logs, and you can watch as I eat in front of you.

"You only need to get one bell. But since there are only two bells, one of you will definitely get tied up. One of you will definitely fail – and return to the Academy.

"Use kunai, shruiken, whatever. Come at me with the intention to kill or _you_ _will not succeed_.

Sakura protests, "But you'll be in danger!"

Inclining his head towards Sakura, Kakashi says,

"If you think so. Regardless, let's get going. Ready? Begin!"

The genin speed into the woods, leaving Kakashi alone in the clearing.

-(=A=)-

"You guys got it? The timing has to be perfect," Naruto whispers as the three genin crouch beneath the cover of a particularly large bush.

"Speak for yourself. Remember that the clone has to be within arm's length, no more, before you release the genjutsu."

"I _know_. Trust me. All ready? Go!"

Rinnegan active underneath his googles, Naruto bursts out into the clearing, running full pelt to close the distance between Kakashi and himself.

As Naruto flies through the seals, his mind registers the fact that the book Kakashi is reading is Icha Icha Paradise. He does not mind – underestimation tilts the fight in their favour, somewhat.

"Katon: Goen!"

Flames erupt from Naruto's mouth, consuming the area around Kakashi. The Great Flame Technique is less powerful that the similarly C-ranked Gokakyu, but affects a much greater surface area – which is crucial when fighting someone far, far faster than yourself.

Breaking off the jutsu, Naruto uses the kawarimi to switch into upper branches of a tree. As expected, Kakashi has easily evaded the Goen via his own kawarimi. Facing an ostensible ninjutsu specialist, Kakashi will doubtedly want to close him down –

_There_ he is. Making his way over here. Completing his next seal sequence, Naruto exhales:

"Katon: Karyudan!"

The Fire Dragon Bullet Technique is weak but is nevertheless useful for prolonged suppression fire. Already forming the seals for his next jutsu, Naruto uses his mouth to direct the steam of fire. The continuous spray of fire forces Kakashi to dodge and twist and weave, and then – _now_! Twisting around to the side, Naruto exhales in the direction of the flash of chakra he caught in the corner of his eye:

"Katon: Gokakyu!"

Naruto's Grand Fireball consumes Kakashi and his surrounding area just as he emerges from his kawarimi. His Rinnegan caught the spike of chakra a moment before the jutsu engaged – betraying Kakashi's exit point.

_Can't be this easy_, Naruto thinks to himself, as he jumps to the ground to head back into the underbrush for cover.

It isn't.

The ground below him erupts. Kakashi's fist closes around Naruto's ankle, pulling him down and into the chakra-softened soil.

Which promptly hardens. Kakashi emerges from the ground in front of him, smiling his one-eyed smile.

_No time._

Without his hands and without recourse to seals, this is all Naruto can do – kneading fire-nature chakra in his mouth and spitting it out – making an opening just as Sasuke emerges from the undergrowth.

Sharingan and kunai flashing, Sasuke takes that opening. Kakashi has to dodge backwards to avoid getting fire in his face, and for one slight moment he is _off-balance_ – Sasuke's right kunai darts out, attempting to eviscerate Kakashi's one visible eye. Kakashi twists, simultaneously correcting his balance, and dodging Sasuke's stab with almost contemptuous ease. Following that, Sasuke himself uses his momentum to _twist_, and spinning around, he strikes. His left fist, holding a kunai in reverse grip, stabs at the underside of Kakashi's left shoulder, aiming for the weak spot in his vest – it is deflected, with Kakashi himself using a kunai to bat away's Sasuke's attack.

Meanwhile, Naruto has been pumping his chakra into the soil surrounding him, to soften it and allow him to wiggle free. It is slow and inefficient, compared to the actual Doton: Iwagakure jutsu and its variants – but it is the best he can do _sans_ hands. He hopes and prays that his unexpected escape will give them the edge, because they have already failed to exploit the two openings he had made so far – and the crucial timing is almost _here_.

His arms weaving the necessary seals in the liquefied soil, Naruto catches his prospective sensei's eyes just as Kakashi disarms Sasuke.

"Magen: Kasegui!"

The pain barely phases the jounin, who breaks the genjutsu almost instantly, but it buys them that one split second of disorientation, and when Sakura dashes forward to grab at the bells, he fails to notice the bunshin for what it is.

His hand passes through bunshin – the expected body of mass is not where he expects it to be – and for a second time Kakashi is off-balance –

And with Sasuke's kunai's rising to meet his eye, his attention is split again, leaving an opening – he has to dodge, at which point Sakura promptly dives forward to grab the bells.

Panting hard, Naruto allows himself a small grin.

-(=A=)-

The three genin, having skipped breakfast, gratefully dig into the lunches that Kakashi prepared – or rather, bought. Kakashi has never cooked in his entirely life and he is not about to start soon.

That said, he is impressed, and deeply so.

For one, he is impressed with Naruto's ninjutsu and genjutsu. What is particularly outstanding is that the boy is able to use his jutsu effectively – it is one thing to know how to use a jutsu, and quite another to use it well, under battle-conditions. Naruto almost got him with his Gokakyu, by predicting his Kawarimi's location – and that spoke of preternatural skill and reflex, the kind of which most ninjas do not develop until they are well into jounin years.

Kakashi is also impressed with the Uchiha's heir taijutsu, and his limited mastery of the Sharingan – that he can fight a jounin for an extended period speaks extremely highly of his skill.

But above all Kakashi is impressed with their teamwork. To his knowledge, no team save the Sannin has passed the bell test by actually getting the bells. Admittedly, he would have passed them irrespective of the results of today's test, given their actions yesterday. It is not usual for genin teams, let alone one merely two hours fresh out of the Academy, to show such teamwork, but they did – they cooperated and trained together, of their own volition, in preparation for the test today.

Seeing Sakura scrap finish the last bits of rice from her bento, Kakashi decides to speak,

"Good work today. As you might have gathered – if you saw _underneath the underneath_ – this exercise tests not your individual skills, but your teamwork – your ability and willingness to cooperate with others to achieve a common goal. There are two bells, and three of you, so each of you has to put the team and the mission above your own selfish interests. I'm really happy that all of you worked together to get the bell off of me.

"You might be interested to know that this test is one-of-its-kind in Konoha. It was invented by the Nidaime, and the only others to have ever used it are the Sandaime, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and the Yondaime himself. It might also interest you to know that only the Sannin have ever managed to actually get the bells in the test. The Nidaime, Jiraiya and the Yondaime passed their teams despite their failure to get the bells, when it was judged that their teams were willing to work together. You guys are in illustrious company, and I have high hopes for all of you. I know each one of you will grow up to become fantastic ninja.

"I want you to remember this, above all else: look after your teammates. Those who break the rules may be trash, but those that abandon their teamwork are _worse than trash_. As Konoha ninja and as members of Team 7, I expect each one of you to protect and look out for each other."

Their faces are thoughtful as Kakashi ends his speech. He think that it is a good speech – it's based off the one that his own sensei gave. _What do you think, Minato-sensei? You would be so proud of your son. And he's so much like you, from the blond hair, to the genius at ninjutsu –_

He can reminisce later. For now, he decides to call it a day.

"Meet me outside the Hokage Tower tomorrow at eight – we'll be starting the obligatory D-ranks."

As an afterthought, he adds,

"And don't be late."

Leaving the three scowling children behind, he shunshins off. He has a report to make.

-(=A=)-

Naruto tries to keep his sigh in, and fails. Kakashi, on the other hand, looks gleeful, as he speaks,

"I accept the mission on Team 7's behalf."

Taking the scroll from Iruka – the duty chunin at the Mission Desk today – he speaks to his team,

"Come, my cute students. Tora isn't going to catch itself, you know."

Muttering obscenities under his breathe, Naruto and his two teammates follow Kakashi out of the Mission Office. Taking the scroll from Kakashi, he starts considering the best course of action. This is going to be tedious.

"Alright!" Kakashi sits down on the sofa outside the Mission Office, and continues,

"For teambuilding purposes, you lot will finish this mission on your own. I will sit here and observe your teamwork."

"You mean you'll sit here and read porn?"

Sakura is scathing as she observes Kakashi withdraw Icha Icha Paradise from his vest pocket.

"That too."

Naruto wants to get this over and done with, as soon as possible.

"Come on. Don't waste anymore time. Let's go"

They leave Kakashi to his porn, and exiting the Hokage Tower, they sprint for the Opera House, where Madame Shijime first lost the cat. Unbeknownst to them. Kakashi is following them to observe the mission – despite his pretence to contrary.

They reach the Opera Distinct in no time.

Kneeling down outside the Opera House, Naruto spreads out the locality map, and gives voice to his plan,

"Alright. We spread out to our designated areas to interview people for any leads. Remember only to interview shopkeepers and people likely to have been here for quite some time. Ignore all the temporary passers-by. And of course, keep your eyes peeled for the cat. Once anyone gets a lead, we follow it to the new area – otherwise, we expand our search area."

"Hn. All radios working?"

At Sasuke's reminder, they run through a radio check, and then split, with Naruto heading down the alley to emerge in the street behind the Opera House.

He approaches the café across the street, and walks up to the waiter. The waiter's nose scrunches up when he sees Naruto walking towards him.

Naruto has to resist pinching his nose – this is going to be one, long day.

-(=A=)-

The actually finish the mission rather early. They caught a lucky break when Naruto spotted the cat a mere hour after the mission's starting.

They break for a team lunch at Ichiraku – Naruto having convinced the others to reward him for being the one to find the cat.

After that, they head back to Training Ground 3 for team training.

Clapping his hands to get his team's attention, Kakashi starts their first team training,

"There will be two components to the team training. Physical – and mental. Obviously, for physical training, I'll be helping you improve your skills in taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu and the like. I'll also help improve your teamwork – so you can fight as a unit, and overcome enemies that may nevertheless be more skilled than you.

"For mental training, I will teach you how to _think_ – to see underneath the underneath. What sets a great ninja apart from the merely good is the brain – and more specifically, how you use it. I will go into this later, so you don't have to worry about this right now.

"So – let us start. Sasuke and Sakura, you two will be working on taijutsu today. Here –"

As Kakashi makes a handsign, another Kakashi, a picture-perfect clone of the first, appears.

"– is my Kage Bunshin. Run through the Academy katas and he will help you expand and improve upon them. After that, you will spar each other, and then my clone."

Sasuke, Naruto notes, does not look happy about sparring Sakura – she is hardly a challenge, after all. Sakura, too, does not seem enthused about fighting her crush. Kakashi picks up about the byplay, and adds,

"You will give your all to this training. You are ninja, so act the part. Or –"

He gives his one-eyed smile, this one tinged with an element of creepiness, to get his threat across.

"Naruto, we will work on your ninjutsu, particularly the speed of your seals. They are not good enough. If you were faster yesterday, you could have negated my Shinju Zanshu completely – but you weren't, so you didn't, and if that were a fight with an Iwagakure ninja you would missing your head. So we're going to work on that.

"All clear about the day's training? No? Let's begin anyway."

-(=A=)-

Kakashi – the real one – leads Naruto away from the main clearing where Sasuke and Sakura are to practice their taijutsu, and towards the stream, where practising Katons will be much safer.

The taller ninja takes a seat by the river, and indicates for Naruto to do the same.

"Naruto, as a genin you aren't actually required to know any ninjutsu apart from the basic three. The ninjutsu I saw you do yesterday are sufficiently varied and powerful that you honestly don't need any more. I won't be teaching you more jutsu, but I will be helping you improve your performance of the ones you already have. Now, what jutsus do you know? Ninjutsu and genjutsu both."

Kakashi's eyebrow is raised progressively higher as Naruto recounts his remarkably long list of jutsu that he _claims_ he can perform.

"That's… quite the list."

It is indeed. All five elements, albeit with a heavy emphasis on fire? No ninja, let alone genin, should be able to do that many. Kakashi knows from ANBU contacts that Naruto has been using the Uchiha Clan Library – perfectly safe for him, of course; the undesirable kinjutsu have long been confiscated. Nonetheless, reading jutsu scrolls is one things; performing the jutsus proper is an entirely differently things.

"Show me. Perform any four jutsus, one from each element, excluding fire."

Kakashi stands, as does Naruto.

A younger him, Naruto realizes, would have cherished the opportunity to show off his skills. As he is, he feels some trepidation – he does not feel entirely comfortable revealing his capabilities, even to his jounin sensei. He squashes his apprehension, and begins:

Gathering his chakra into his mouth, and thinking about _wind_ – trees shaking in the summer storm, its roar, the gale force – Naruto threads his hands through the seals for the first jutsu:

"Futon: Daitoppa!"

The Great Breakthrough blasts across the river, ruffling the forest and knocking down one particularly small sapling.

Not stopping for breathe, Naruto gathers chakra into his hands, and focuses upon _lighting_ – so bright it hurts to look at; the crack of unforgiving thunder; the heat – weaving the hand seals, Naruto snaps,

"Raiton: Kangekiha!"

Cutting his right hand forward, Naruto points his index and middle fingers towards the bark of a tree ten meters away on this side of the bank. Lightning arcs out and the boom of thunder echoes through the trees. As the temporary blindness brought about by the flash of lightning subsides, Naruto sees a gaping hole in the trunk of the target tree.

The next one will be trickier. His back to the river, Naruto gathers chakra into his legs. Again, he tries to grasp the nature of the element – _earth_ is hard, and silent, and strong. Speeding through the hand seals, Naruto directs his chakra downwards into the earth:

"Doton: Doryudan!"

The patch of ground in front of him liquefies into mud, and shapes into something resembling a dragon's head, which proceeds to spit balls of mud into the lightning-struck tree, with satisfying _thumps_.

And now the hardest for the last. Turning to face the river, Naruto gathers chakra to his mouth once again and flows through the handsigns – water he has always had trouble with, but the key is again to grasp the element's essence. _Water_ – he sees the blue of the stream, hears its gurgling, and he can almost feel how cooling and refreshing it would be to dip into it –

"Suiton: Mizurappa!"

Water erupts from his mouth, drawn from the moisture laden air around him, and is deposited into the stream. Naruto holds it for as long as he can, before releasing the jutsu to catch his breathe.

"Good work."

Kakashi's voice is quiet, and Naruto can tell that his mind is whirling. Not surprising – the ability to manipulate all the five elements is almost unheard of. There is the Sandaime, of course: but the Professor is the Professor is the Professor and there is no one quite like the God of Shinobi.

The silence hangs in the air for a while, before Kakashi breaks it.

"Well, like I said, good job. Practice your seals for now. Your aim is a rate of at least 10 seals a second – anything less is not good enough. After that, we will work on your Katon –how to better produce them, and ways you can use them in combat. Am I right that you favour them?"

"Yup."

"Then start on those seals. Practice on the Gokakyu seals, and the other C-ranked Katons that you will favour in combat."

Kakashi draws out Icha Icha Paradise and settles down a distance from Naruto, ostensibly to read, but his eyes are glassy and his mind distracted from the pornography.

_Minato-sensei, your son really is quite interesting._

-(=A=)-

It is dusk, and the team is on the roof of the Academy. They have just had dinner at a barbeque restaurant frequently patronized by the Konohan ninjas – Kakashi-sensei's treat – and now they are ready to start the second part of the training – the mental portion.

His face hidden in the darkness, Kakashi resembles a menacing scarecrow. He considers his words carefully, and then speaks,

"Let's play a game."

Surprised faces meet his announcement. Inclining his head to Naruto, Kakashi asks,

"Naruto. Could you bring your hands up, fingers outstretched? Palms facing me. Yes, like that.

"The game is simple. There are two players. Say, me and Sakura. It is a turn based game, revolving around these ten fingers. Each turn, you can either fold one finger, or two fingers, starting from right to left. The goal is to fold the last finger – in this case, Naruto's right pinky.

"Let me start. I choose… to fold one finger."

Acquiescing, Naruto folds his left pinky, leaving nine fingers upright.

"Your turn, Sakura."

Sakura's face scrunches up in intense concentration – Naruto can tell that she is thinking hard. Naruto himself is trying to puzzle out the meaning of the game, and then Sakura speaks up,

"I've lost."

Kakashi chuckles,

"Why?"

"If everyone plays perfectly, and the goal is to fold the tenth finger, then the player who folds the seventh finger is guaranteed to win. The other player who follows can fold either the eight, or the eight and ninth – it doesn't matter; either way, the other player will be able to fold the tenth."

His brows furrowing, Sakura continues her reasoning,

"By the same logic, the person who folds the fourth finger is guaranteed to fold the seventh finger, and thus guaranteed to win the game. And again by the same logic, the person who folds the first finger is guaranteed to fold the fourth – since you went first, you win."

"Very good, Sakura! I see why you topped the class in the written exam. Flawless reasoning. But! You must win. That is your mission, and failure is death and disgrace. What do you do?"

"I… don't see how that's possible. Perhaps we force you to make a mistake? If you don't play perfectly, I can still win. But the winning strategy is obvious – I've just stated it. Kakashi-sensei, I honestly don't see how we can win at this game."

Tilting his head in acknowledgment to Sakura's response, Kakashi starts the lesson proper,

"The lesson from this game, my cute genin, is to look underneath the underneath. Or to put it another way: question your assumptions. You made two assumptions, Sakura. First, that the rules of the game are immutable. Are they? Why not just bend all the fingers now, and win? Your second mistake is to assume that you cannot work around the rules. Why not? Bribe me, to throw the game. Threaten me with grievous bodily harm, unless I fold. Throw out a false piece of analysis that convinces me that bending the sixth finger is what I need to win – which will allow you to bend the seventh and go on to win.

"Do you see what I'm getting at? To see underneath the underneath is to not let the obvious blind you to reality. For example: our team is assigned to protect a rich client. A business competitor of his has hired missing-nin to assassinate our client. We meet and fight the missing-nin. He is stronger than us and we will probably die. In such circumstances, what can we do? What strategies can we use? Think about it."

Silence greets Kakashi as his students are unable to conjure a possible solution. It hangs there for a few minutes, until Kakashi steps in again,

"What do missing-nins want? What does this missing-nin in particular want? What resources do we have that we can use to persuade the missing-nin that it is not in his interest to fight and kill us?"

Naruto's eyes gleam as the answer hits him.

"Bribe him!" Naruto blurts out

"Justification?" Kakashi asks mildly in response.

"Er. He wants money! That's why he has agreed to kill our client. We can offer him money to turn away – if he runs, he gets his money; if he fights, he might get hurt, even if he wins. We have a rich client – he can fork out the money. And since our enemy is a missing-nin, no code of honour or military discipline holds him to his promise to his original contractor."

Kakashi rewards Naruto's answer with a kurt nod.

"Correct. Now: why didn't you think of that before my hints? Of course, I don't claim to know how each of you thinks, but I bet that you were all thinking along the lines of: how can we fight and defeat this strong missing-nin? Failing that, can we run away with our client? As ninja, one of our core assumptions is that we are supposed to kill people and that we complete our goals by killing people. Because of that assumption, you went about answering the question in the wrong way, and you couldn't come up with a workable answer.

"Your assumptions led you to be stuck when confronted by what is really a simple question. If you learn nothing else from today, remember: look underneath the underneath – what am I assuming? And with that, my little genin, our session is over. Same time and place tomorrow – eight at the Hokage Tower."

Kakashi turns and pushes off from the rooftop, leaving his introspective genin to their thoughts.

-(=A=)-

Notes:

Katon: Goen – Fire Release: Great Flame Technique

Kawarimi – Replacement Technique

Katon: Karyudan – Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet Technique

Katon: Gokakyu – Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Magen: Kasegui – Demonic Illusion: Shackling Spikes Technique

Shunshin – Body Flicker Technique

Doton: Shinju Zanshu – Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation

Futon: Daitoppa – Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Raiton: Kangekiha – Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration

Doton: Doryudan – Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet

Suiton: Mizurappa – Water Release: Wild Water Wave


	3. Chapter 3

Summary: Peace, and a world without orphans. That was all Naruto Uzumaki ever wanted. It is his dream, and the Sage's – and everyone knows you can't reach utopia without treading on a few corpses.

**Daybreak**

Chapter 3

It has been month since Team 7's graduation from the Academy – a month of D-ranks and training. They have fallen into a routine – missions in the morning, training in the afternoon and evening.

Today, though, will be different.

Naruto does not bother containing his grin as the team walks into the Mission Office. Sakura too is smiling in excitement, and even Sasuke seems less dour than usual. As Kakashi promised, today will be the day they take their first C-rank mission – and by extension they take on the possibility of actual combat.

Even if the genin do not know this, the mission they are about to receive has been screened and scrutinized intensely by the Mission Office personnel. It is their job to ensure that the missions received are as they appear to be – and to weed out customers who might, for the sake of a lower price, lie about the severity of the danger involved. This is especially important for Kakashi Hatake's team, given the village assets at stake – it is imperative that the village Jinchurikki and the Last Uchiha are not exposed to unknown threats.

Of course, the Mission Office ninja are human, and humans make mistake. It is not unusual for the imperfect intelligence reports from a relatively insignificant country like Wave to underrate the political significance of the bridge under construction. It is easy to dismiss signs like sweating under interrogation as false positives – it is not uncommon for civilians to be intimidated by ninja. And it is also easy to mistake drunkenness for foolishness and the inability to lie. And as a result, Tazuna's C-ranked mission request has been accepted, and after a some deliberation between Hokage and Copy Ninja, it is deemed a good maiden C-rank mission for the rookie genin team.

"Hokage-sama, I formally request a C-rank mission for Team 7. I believe that the D-ranks that they have done so far, and the training that I have put them through, have prepared them for the rigour of a C-rank mission and for the danger of combat," Kakashi announces under the expectant gazes of his genin.

"Well, Kakashi, I have just the mission for you," the Hokage says as he offers a particular mission scroll to Kakashi, "It's a C-rank mission where you will protect a certain individual for a duration of, say – a month, maybe more?"

Handing the scroll over, the Hokage raises his voice,

"Tazuna-san, could you please enter?"

The sliding door to the waiting room on their left slides open, and Team 7 sees their client for the first time.

Tall and muscular, with greying hair and a sake bottle clutched in his left hand, Tazuna wastes no time evaluating his new protectors:

"What's this? They're a bunch of super brats. Especially the short one in orange, with the stupid googles. Are you really a ninja?"

Naruto cannot help himself, and responds immediately,

"Hey, old man, try not to drink yourself to death during the mission. I wouldn't want the mission to fail just because your liver implodes."

"Heh. You have a mouth, boy. I am an expert bridge builder, Tazuna of Wave Country. I expect you lot to provide me with the best protection until I get back to my homeland and complete this bridge that I'm building."

Despite their client being annoying, the mission itself sounds interesting, and Naruto cannot help but feel excited at the prospect of his first proper mission – of actually protecting a client – and of leaving the village on a trip.

-(=A=)-

The day is bright and the sun is shining as the team and their client assemble at the Great Gates of Konoha. The weather is perfect for their journey – they will make good time.

They set off, in formation. Naruto takes point, so that he does not have to walk beside Tazuna – and because he enjoys the unimpeded view of the scenery. Sasuke and Sakura flank Tazuna, while Kakashi takes the rear.

They travel in companionable silence, until Sakura's curiosity moves her to ask Tazuna,

"Tazuna-san?"

"What?"

"You're from Wave Country, right?"

"What about it?"

"Umm… Kakashi-sensei, do they have ninja in that country?"

Turning to answer Sakura's query, Kakashi replies,

"Not in Wave Country. But in most countries, yes. The cultures and customs may be different from Fire Country's, but ninja villages do exist in these other countries, as do ninja. And since we're on the topic, let's have an impromptu lesson!

"To the various countries on the continent, a shinobi villages means military might. That is how the countries hold and maintain advantages over each other. Within a country, a shinobi village is the political equal on the civilian government. A small country like Wave cannot afford to have a shinobi village.

"On the other hand, if you are a big country, you _can_ afford to have your own shinobi village, as is the case with the five main military powers of: Fire Country, Lightning Country, Earth Country, Wind Country, and Water Country. Thus we have the five main ninja villages in Konohagakure, Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Sunagakure, and Mizugakure. Their leaders are given the title of Kage – the Hokage, Raikage, Tsuchikage, Kazekage, and Mizukage are ninjas of unparalleled strength, and they reign over thousands and thousands of ninjas."

Sakura exclaims, "Wow, Hokage-sama is the best!"

Kakashi snorts, "The old man is stronger than he looks. By the way, you guys don't have to worry." Patting Sakura on the head, he adds, "It is unlikely that we will meet any actual combat on a C-rank, though you do have to be prepared for any eventualities."

Sakura looks relieved as she asks, "So we won't meet any foreign ninja?"

"Of course not! So don't get your hopes up if you're expecting any combat, eh?"

Lapsing back into an easy silence, the group continues making its way on the jungle path.

Eventually, they pass a puddle. Naruto is focused upon the road in front of him, as well as the surrounding trees; he notices nothing amiss. The group passes the puddle without incidence, though Kakashi spares the puddle a glance.

The Demon Brothers leap into action.

Emerging from their puddle, they head straight for the obvious threat. Meizu spins through the air towards Kakashi, while Gozu goes low.

Their barbed chain wraps around Kakashi, as he exclaims in surprise,

"What!"

His team echoes his astonishment, but the Demon Brothers _pull_ – and Kakashi is ripped into bloody bits.

"One down," Meizu growls.

As Sakura screams in terror, her teammates move into action.

Rinnegan activating, Naruto notes without much surprise that Kakashi is not dead – a subtle genjutsu hangs over shards of wood, giving the impression of a shredded corpse.

He has little time, with the pair opting to go after him first. Retreating backwards, he tries give himself more space – and to put more space between Sakura and the enemy.

_Too dangerous for any Katon_, Naruto notes. He is on the wrong side of the group, and any fire jutsu will incinerate his team as well as the enemy.

Bringing both palms up, he pumps chakra into his hands.

Two spheres of chakra are formed, and are promptly blasted into the two enemy ninjas' chests.

Meanwhile, Sasuke has taken into the air. Spinning, he uses a shuriken to pin the chain connecting the two enemy ninja into a tree. His accuracy unerring, he directs a kunai through the first shuriken, reinforcing the pin.

The Demon Brothers find themselves winded from the blond boy's attack, and stuck besides – their claw hands cannot _move_. And in a blur of speed, Sasuke is in their midst. Using their claws as leverage, he kicks them both in the face.

Fingers spinning, Naruto finishes the fight that the Demon Brothers started.

"Magen: Kasegui!"

The brothers stiffen in pain as spikes are driven into their body. They try to break the genjutsu, but between the pain in their chests and heads, and the pain from the Magen, they fail to muster the necessary concentration to disrupt their chakra flow.

It is at this point that Kakashi chooses to make his reentry. Taking his time, he lands brutally deliberate blows to their hearts, liver, kidneys, and other vulnerable points. The Demon Brothers slump to the ground, and Kakashi motions to Naruto to end the genjutsu. Naruto does so, but the brothers do not get up.

"Tie them up. Be careful of their claws – they're poisoned."

Turning to Tazuna, Kakashi's voice is cold as he speaks,

"Tazuna-san – we will need to talk later."

Once the Demon Brothers are well trussed-up to a tree, and attached with the necessary chakra suppressors, Kakashi confronts the team's client.

"Tazuna-san – these two are the Demon Brothers; well known chunin-level missing-nin from the Hidden Mist. They are dangerous."

Gozu, having regained consciousness, interrupts Kakashi with a cough, before asking,

"How did you escape our attack?"

"On a sunny day like that, when it hasn't rained in ages, there shouldn't be a water puddle in the middle of the road. And here, my students, is where _thinking_ pays off. Naruto, I know you were watching the tree line intently, but you made a mistake by assuming that an attack would come from there – from the obvious ambush spots. Be alert, and pay attention to the little things."

_He's right_. Naruto kicks himself – because he really ought to have noticed. _If only I had the Rinnegan active…_

Tazuna is agitated as he asks,

"Then why did you let the brats fight when you knew that?"

"I could have killed them where they stood… but I wanted to find out something – who their target was."

Tazuna is visibly sweating at this point.

"What do you mean?"

"Meaning… were they after you, or one of us? You never told us that there would be shinobi after you. Our job was to protect you from thieves or gangs in the unlikely event that any thieves or bandits turn up to attack a ninja escort. This mission is now at least B-ranked, and not a simple protection mission. And of course a B-ranked mission would be more expensive. You lied to us, to get a cheaper rate, didn't you?"

Tazuna's silence is his admission of guilt. Kakashi continues,

"We are operating outside the original mission parameters now."

Sakura looks relieved at this, and ventures to add,

"We aren't ready for this mission, Kakashi-sensei! We should head back to Konoha – and get Tazuna-san the escort he needs."

"Hmm."

Kakashi looks noncommittal and Tazuna interjects desperately.

"Look! I'm really sorry for lying and putting you all into danger, but I – I didn't have a choice.

"There is a dangerous man after my life – his name is Gatou."

"Of Gatou Company? He's a really wealthy man." Kakashi's one visible eye widens in surprise.

"Yes… the shipping magnate. But he also runs a smuggling operation of illegal goods, like drugs and explosives. It's a criminal racket – using ninjas and gangs he takes over other businesses, even regions! He's a very nasty man. It was a year ago that he set his eyes on Wave. Through money and liberal use of violence, he took over my country's shipping industry. Now, he has a monopoly of all trade – and his monopoly is threatened by the bridge I'm building, which is why he wants me dead."

Sakura looks thoughtful at this, and asks,

"So you're in his way?"

Sasuke interjects, frowning,

"And those ninja were hired by Gatou?"

Kakashi cocks his head as he too provides a question,

"So why not hire a ninja team of appropriate skill to defend you? Surely you don't want to take any risks – why choose green genin to protect you against such a dangerous man?"

Tazuna lowers his head in shame.

"We're really poor. Even the daimyo doesn't have much money. My village couldn't come up with enough money for a B-ranked mission. I'm really sorry – I won't blame you for quitting the mission now, though I will definitely be killed! And my cute grandson will cry, and my daughter will hate Konoha ninja forever!"

Inwardly, Kakashi marvels at the transparent ploy, by the bridge builder, to gain his sympathy. Regardless, he is tempted to play along – he is confident of handling any ninja that might appear; and it is good experience for his genin. But before he can voice his acquiescence, Naruto speaks up,

"Kakashi-sensei, I think we should complete this mission, whatever the danger. It's obvious that Tazuna-san deserves our protection, and getting the bridge completed will do quite a lot of good for Wave, won't it?"

_Did Naruto really fall for that? I hope not._ Regardless, Kakashi voices his agreement, and so the mission continues on.

-(=A=)-

The thick mist swirls around their small boat, as the group makes their way across the small channel between mainland and Wave.

Naruto is taking no chances – not since that debacle with the puddle a week ago. His Rinnegan is active under his tinted googles.

The man ferrying them across speaks, in hushed tones,

"We should see the bridge soon. The village itself lies at the foot of the bridge. We're almost there."

They spend more minutes in silence, save for the lapping waves and the quiet swoosh of the paddle.

"Tazuna, we've avoided being discovered so far, but just in case, I'll take the route with mangrove cover."

Tazuna nods in thanks to his friend, as the boat slips past one particularly large mangrove.

Eventually, the village comes into view, and they disembark.

"This is it for me. Good luck," whispers the ferryman.

Tazuna tips his hat, and whispers back, "Thanks a lot for this."

Turning to his ninja escorts, he says,

"Now, get me home safely."

They head further inland – Tazuna's house is located away from the village proper; it is in the deeper woodland area.

And then Naruto sees the chakra signature – dark blue and cold with the promise of death. From the intensity of the chakra, it has to be a jounin – or someone very strong, at least.

Not a moment later, a massive greatsword spins out of the woods, and there is a flicker of chakra –

Dodging down, Naruto avoids the spinning sword, while forming the seals for an offensive jutsu. _I will not be caught off-guard this time._

Bracing himself, Naruto exhales:

"Katon: Gokakyu!"

The Grand Fireball roars towards the spot where the assailant has just emerged from shunshin –

Only for it to be extinguished in a spinning vortex of water. Kakashi's hand hold Naruto's shoulder in a vice-grip as the older man pushes him back.

"This is out of your league. _Stay back._"

Raising his voice, Kakashi greets the would-be assassin. Muscular, with pale skin and a bandage wrapped loosely around his mouth and throat, the assassin stands on the handle of his greatsword – which is itself embedded into the trunk of a tree.

"Well, well. If it isn't the Hidden Mist's Zabuza Momochi. This will be a little difficult, unless…"

Using his left hand, Kakashi prepares to draws up his headband.

"Sharingan Kakashi. Sorry, but that old man is mine."

_Sharingan! _Impossible – Naruto's mind whirls as he processes _that_ piece of information – Sasuke, who is beside him, shows similar signs of shock.

Kakashi's voice is clear and crisp, as he issues his orders.

"Surround and protect Tazuna. Stay together, and _stay out of this fight_."

In one fluid move, Kakashi draws up his headband into its proper position, revealing a scar and a spinning three-tomoe sharingan.

"Ha. I already get to see that famous sharingan, eh? I'm honoured. Let's _go_."

And the fight begins.

In a flicker of shunshin, Zabuza lands on the surface of the nearby lake – somehow, he is standing on it. Raising one arm up in the air, with the other held in a half-seal, Zabuza whispers,

"Suiton: Kirigakure no jutsu."

Naruto sees an immense amount of chakra being expelled into the water beneath Zabuza. Rising, the water dissipates into a dense mist, obscuring Zabuza from sight.

"He's gone!" Tazuna's hoarse shout states the obvious, before Kakashi interjects,

"He'll come after me first. He's an expert in silent killing – you won't notice until it's too late. And in these conditions, my sharingan is much less useful. So stay together, and be careful."

The mist is thickening, even now, and then Zabuza's voice echoes through it.

_Liver, lungs, clevical vein, neck vein, brain, kidneys, heart._

The killing intent from the enemy jounin is _suffocating_, and Naruto cannot move –

Kakashi's voice, clear and reassuring, rings out,

"Naruto. Sasuke. Sakura. Don't worry. I will protect you with my life. I don't let my comrades die."

Then there is a flash of chakra –

_Behind me._

Too slow.

"It's over."

Zabuza whispers from behind him and Naruto is_ spinning _around with hiskunai but_ he is too slow_.

Another flicker in the corner of his eye, and Kakashi is plunging a kunai into Zabuza's heart.

Another Zabuza appears behind Kakashi as the first one crumbles into water. Zabuza's greatsword whistles, and as Sakura screams, Kakashi himself is shredded – before falling apart as water.

Kakashi has appeared again, holding a kunai to Zabuza's neck.

"It's over."

"It's over? Heh – no. Your poor imitations can't defeat me. That use of the mizu bunshin was good – but I'm better!"

Another Zabuza appears, holding a kunai to Kakashi's neck. The clone-upon-clone-upon-clone deception would have been funny – if not for the life-or-death situation.

Kakashi's kunai rips through the water clone, and he turns just in time to see the greatsword cutting towards him. He manages to dive to the ground to avoid being decapitated, while Zabuza buries the sword into the ground.

Using his momentum, Zabuza twists and lashes out with his right leg. Kakashi blocks, but is nevertheless sent flying into the water.

Too late, Naruto _sees_ the trap coming and can do _nothing_ to help his sensei as the chakra-laden water restricts Kakashi's movement. Zabuza has closed him down, and with his hands spinning through seals that Naruto vaguely recognizes –

"Suiton: Suiro!"

Water envelopes Kakashi, imprisoning him in a sphere. Zabuza, confident that he has won, taunts his trapped opponent,

"You lost when you fell into the water, Kakashi. Now you're in an inescapable prison. Stay there for now. We can finish this later. But first things first, I'll handle your brats!"

Naruto sees the opening – it's so blatantly obvious that he almost does not _dare_ believe it. Zabuza is _underestimating_ them – he is still talking, of all things.

Forming a flurry of seals, Naruto notes that his plan of action seems almost too simplistic to work –

"Magen: Kasegui!"

_And this is the reason why the water prison is considered a terrible jutsu – it leaves you vulnerable while you maintain the sphere of water._

The genjutsu makes its mark, and iron spikes impale Zabuza Momochi from all sides. He disrupts the genjutsu almost instinctively – at the cost of _simultaneously disrupting his flow of chakra to the water prison_. He exits the genjutsu, only for a fist to slam upwards into his jaw.

Kakashi, having broken free from the water prison, starts his own series of seals. His eyes are filled with a cold rage – at Zabuza, and at himself – and the sound of chirping birds fill the air.

Zabuza, disoriented from the direct haymaker to his jaw, cannot dodge –

Naruto stares in amazement at the mass of white chakra, burning brighter than anything he has ever seen, and understands just how far below he is as a ninja compared to his sensei. The blade of lightning eviscerates Zabuza's chest, and when Kakashi pulls back his torso is nothing but a gaping _hole_.

Naruto think the battle to be over, but nothing is ever so simple – a bright flare of chakra to his right alerts him, and he manages to shout a warning at Kakashi-sensei.

The temperature has dropped to near-freezing, and all around him is this biting, icy chakra – white and pure and desperate and _heart-broken_.

A blur, too fast for the eye to see – and then suddenly there is a gurgle and the sound of someone choking on their on blood.

The masked ninja was fast, but Kakashi – tired and drained and exhausted – is faster. His still-active raikiri has blown apart the chest of the masked ninja. The needles of ice, held between his fingers, drop to the floor. Already, the air is reverting to its original, less bone-numbing temperature.

Letting his raikiri dissipate, Kakashi manages to pull his forehead protector over his sharingan, before collapsing unceremoniously into the water.

-(=A=)-

After leaving Sasuke and Sakura to guard Tazuna's house – with Kakashi-sensei sleeping off his chakra exhaustion – Naruto heads to the village to scout and gather information.

The villagers are unhelpful, and he has not gotten anything more than tight-lipped nods or shakes of the head.

But if he has learnt one thing from his visit to the village, it is this – that the people are _fearful_.

He sees it everywhere. From the frowns, to the tightened jaws, to the dipped heads, he sees a cowed population, fearful and meek. What is most telling is the look of sudden panic that people get when they notice his headband.

Something is really wrong here.

He raises the issue to Tazuna at dinner. He gets his answer – and Tazuna tells the tragic story of Wave, and of the tragedy that befell this particular family.

Kaiza's death is sad, of course – and it is nothing too special in the context of Wave Country. Kaiza is not the first that Gatou has beaten, tortured and killed. If Tazuna's claims are true – then Gatou is a thug guilty of perpetuating a racket of violence, intimidation and corruption. _How many has he killed?_

Naruto knows the feeling of resentment very well, but the hatred and disgust that coil in his stomach are new, and not altogether unpleasant.

Casually, he asks Tazuna where Gatou will likely be – where his headquarters are.

He knows what he has to do.

What worth would his nindo be if he does nothing?

_Inari would not be an orphan if it were not for Gatou._

-(=A=)-

He raised the issue with Kakashi, but was rebuffed.

_Naruto, our mission is to protect Tazuna and that is all. Going after Gato is not what our mission directs us to do. We will do our duty, and going after Gato risks both our mission and our lives. Do you want to risk your teammates' safety?_

He nodded his acceptance to Kakashi, but pays his warnings no heed.

Kakashi is asleep again after wolfing down the dinner Naruto brought up to his room. After telling Sasuke and Sakura that he will be off on reconnaissance, and that it will take up the whole night, he heads north through the woods.

The journey takes him hours to make, because he dares not exhaust himself too much before combat, and it is past midnight before he reaches the northern coastal town where Gatou has entrenched himself.

Throughout the journey, he steels himself for what he has to do – he reminds himself constantly of what Gatou has done, and will continue to do unless he is stopped.

_Inari would not be an orphan if it were not for Gatou._

He has kept his Konoha headband in his pounch– it is too distinctive, and no one needs to associate Konoha with what he is about to do. His similarly recognizable blond hair is hidden under a black kerchief borrowed from Tsunami.

Wandering his way in, Naruto notes that the town is a seedy one, with bars and brothels and drug dens and all.

But Gatou's headquarters is unmistakable – a ten storey building with a gaudy glass facade, towering over the rest of the town.

There is also no mistaking the two men at the front entrance for what they are – thugs. Naruto feels no compunction over what he is about to do next.

Incapacitating both with Magen: Kasegui, he buys himself the time to secure them both with ninja wire. After gagging the Fat One, he swivels behind the Ugly One and levels a kunai at his throat. Dropping the genjutsu, he whispers,

"Talk. Is Gatou here tonight?

"What? What the fuck did you do?"

The man is shaking after enduring the pain-laced Magen, and it does not take much to subdue him. Whipping the blunt ring of his kunai into the Ugly One's temple, he tries again.

"Talk. Unless you want to experience spikes in your body again. _Is Gatou here_?"

Ugly One talks, and Naruto gets everything he wants to know. After gagging Ugly One, he drags both men (_they are heavy_) into the bushes by the road, and leave them there.

Barging into the building, he drops the two other security men lounging on the annex sofas, with chakra pulses to their heads.

He races up the stairs to the tenth floor – where Gatou's office and private rooms are.

Another two guards are outside the office – again dispatched with chakra pulses before they have the time to register anything.

It seems too easy, but Naruto reminds himself that he is ninja and they are civilian, and that there is a world of difference between the two.

Not wasting time, Naruto uses another chakra pulse to take apart the locks on the double doors to Gato's office. Deciding to go for a touch of theatricality, he proceeds to kick them open. They slam open with a bang, but there is no one there. Giving the office a quick scan, Naruto moves towards the door to the right of a massive desk. It is locked, but a kick soon negates the purpose of the lock.

The commotion wakes the man who had been sleeping on the large, luxurious four-poster bed.

"What the hell!"

"Gatou-sama, I apologize for the sudden entry, but Zabuza-sama sent me to report important news. You are Gatou-sama, yes?"

The trick works; Naruto sees the shift in the man's eyes when he mentions Zabuza.

"Of course I am. Good news, I hope? He boasted so much – that bridge builder had better be dead."

_So this is Gatou._

Naruto cannot believe that the small, white-haired man struggling to push himself to an upright position on his bed can be Gatou, who has terrorized an entire nation.

"Well, brat? What is it? If your master has failed, I will –"

Naruto's hands shake as he tries to withdraw a kunai. The Academy desensitizes its students, and conditions them to become killers. The entire enterprise is subtle, and can involve letting the students practice killing and gutting rabbits on survival exercises, or it can involve repeated exposures to graphic depictions of dead enemy ninja – ostensibly for historical education, of course.

But the moment of truth is here, and Naruto does not know if he can deal the killing blow. It is one thing to kill in a fight, and another to kill an unarmed man –

_Like Gatou killed Kaiza?_

A voice inside him, growling and primal, reminds him of why he is here.

_This man is a murderer, and will keep on killing people if he does not die here, today._

Naruto wonders for one mad moment whether he should be worried that there is something like a second voice in his head.

_Inari would not be an orphan if it were not for Gatou._

His hand grasps the kunai.

_Kill him._

He pulls the weapon out.

_Kill him!_

Naruto makes his decision, and naked steel glints in the moonlight.

-(=A=)-

He gets back to the house by the first light of dawn.

No one says anything at breakfast about his crepuscular absence – he does not think that the others bothered going to Kakashi regarding his overnight disappearance. Kakashi himself is there at breakfast, having recovered enough to walk with crutches – he gives no indication of anything being out of the ordinary.

After breakfast, Kakashi issues his routine orders for the day.

"Tazuna-san says that the bridge should be completed within the month. While I recover, you lot will guard Tazuna-san and his workers at the bridge, just in case anything happens. At any time, two of the three of you must be at the bridge. You will rotate, and the third person will be here with me – training! For today – Sasuke and Sakura, follow Tazuna-san to the bridge.

"Naruto – with me."

He feels the dread coiling in his stomach – _does he know?_

Naruto follows Kakashi as his sensei hobbles his way into a clearing of trees behind the house – each step he takes feels heavy.

_Is this guilt?_

Kakashi looks concerned as he asks,

"Naruto, are you alright? I've noticed that you're rather… down… this morning."

Can he lie? No. Kakashi is far too old and far too clever for a lie to pass muster.

But Naruto remembers Kakashi's lessons – the mental training sessions – on how to think like a ninja.

_A half-truth can deceive where a lie fails._

"Actually, Kakashi-sensei, I… You know, you killed Zabuza and his accomplice yesterday, and I helped, right?

"And I feel… guilty. I suppose I'm being stupid and silly, because this is the life of a ninja, but it was such a shock when you killed them.

"Yeah… so I guess I'm feeling a bit upset about it."

The beauty of this half-truth is that he does not have to pretend to feel guilty – he _does_ feel guilty, and every inch of his face shows it – and Kakashi can see that as plain as day.

Kakashi's eye softens as he hears his student pour out his guilt and uncertainty to him. He considers his words carefully before speaking,

"Naruto, I know this must be hard, but like you said, it is the life of a ninja. As ninja, we must make difficult choices sometimes. In the case of Zabuza, if we didn't kill him, he would have killed us. He would have killed me, you, Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna. The bridge that Tazuna would have built – which would have done so much good – would never be completed.

"So… the choice is difficult, but clear. Sometimes, as ninja, we must make these hard decisions. One day, you will be put in a situation where you have to kill, for the sake of the mission, or to perhaps save a friend. You will have to choose, and it will not be easy, and you will feel guilt and regret if you do choose to kill. But you will be doing the right thing – standing by your friends and by your duty to the village.

"And remember – the guilt and regret of inaction is a thousand times worse. Failing a friend because you were too hesitant or weak – the _pain_ and the _guilt_ and the _self-loathing_ is soul-crushing. So keep that in mind as well."

Kakashi smiles a bittersweet smile at this – he of all people knows very well what self-recrimination feels like.

"For what it's worth, Naruto, it gets easier as time goes by.

"And Naruto, you have a very big heart, and I trust you to do the right thing when the moment comes about."

Kakashi offers Naruto an awkward pat on the back, before moving on to the lesson of the day.

"Training helps stop your mind from wandering needlessly. So – let's begin, shall we? Today we'll be climbing trees!"

-(=A=)-

The rumours come in within the week – that Gatou has been murdered, his company fragmenting in the turf wars between his subordinates.

The rumours are as wild as any – some say that Gatou has been killed by ambitious underlings; others say that rival gang members finally did him in; yet others say that the ghost of Kaiza returned to deal divine justice to his murderer.

Inari is shocked for words – he cannot comprehend how this larger-than-life monster can just die. He cries – nothing new, there – but perks up somewhat for the remainder of Team 7's stay.

When Naruto visits the village, he can feel the lighter atmosphere – the quiet satisfaction of the people around him that their hated enemy is dead. People are now more willing to talk – and while they are worried about the fallout of the Gatou Company dissolving, they are happy that Gatou is dead.

That, at least, is gratifying, though it does not help him sleep much better.

_The blood, the gurgling, the glassy eyes._

Time passes slower than Naruto would have liked – he cannot wait to return to Konoha.

But eventually the bridge is completed – ahead of schedule, even; perhaps Gatou's death was a morale boost to the workers? It has to help productivity, to know that you aren't about to die in a ninja attack at any moment.

The bridge is unveiled as the Great Kaiza Bridge – in memory and honour of the village hero.

Team 7 is given the honour of being the first people ever to use to bridge.

As they take their first steps on the bridge dedicated to heroism, Naruto feels nothing like a hero. He only tries to think of home – and to forget about Wave, and the blood that he cannot wash off his hands.

-(=A=)-

Notes:

Magen: Kasegui – Shacking Stakes Technique

Katon: Gokakyu – Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Shunshin – Body Flicker Technique

Suiton: Kirigakure – Water Release: Hiding in the Mist Technique

Suiton: Mizu Bunshin – Water Release: Water Clone

Suiton: Suiro – Water Release: Water Prison

Raikiri – Lightning Cutter


End file.
